Andersen CH, et al. – An analysis was performed to examine the effect of different time–wise combinations of one weekly hour of strength training for the neck and shoulder muscles on headache frequency, intensity, and use of analgesics. Regardless of the distribution during the week, 1 hour of specific strength training effectively reduced both headache frequency and intensity in office workers. Thus, when implementing specific strength training at the workplace, a large time–wise flexibility existed. However, only supervised training led to a reduction in the use of analgesics for headache.

• The researchers randomly allocated 573 office workers at the cluster-level to 5 groups; 3 × 20 min a week of minimally supervised (3MS), 1 × 60 (1WS), 3 × 20 (3WS) or 9 × 7 (9WS) min a week of supervised high-intensity strength training for 20 weeks, or to a reference group without training (REF).
• They determined headache frequency, intensity, and use of analgesics in relation to headache by questionnaire at baseline and follow-up.

• The researchers demonstrated reduced headache frequency and intensity of about 50% in all training groups compared with REF at 20-week follow-up (P < 0.001) in the intention-to-treat analysis.
• Compared with REF at follow-up, use of analgesics was lower in the supervised training groups (1WS, 3WS, and 9WS), but not in the group with minimal training supervision (3MS).